Band:
Andreas "Whiplasher Bernadotte" Bergh –vocals
Jonas "Skinny Disco" Kangur – bass, b vocals
Emil "Nightmare Industries" Nödtveidt – guitar, keyboards
Oscar "Vice" Leander – drums
Eric "Cat Casino" Bäckman – lead guitar
Discography:
Synthetic Generation (2002)
Termination Bliss (2006)
Night Electric Night (2009)
Guests:
Info
Released 4/11-2011
Reviewed 9/11-2011
Musically I would not call this band innovative, they do sound quite much like most gothic metal band with a dark voice, darkish music with a rather heavy use of keyboards. If you want a similar band, why not HIM, sure there are several more that can fit the bill as well but I think you catch my drift. They may not be innovative but their songs are very well sounding and well produced, with a modern sound and lots of atmosphere the sound undoubtably can’t be better for the music. There are fifteen songs on the album, two of which are not heard before and thirteen are from the three albums the band has released earlier and the playing time is almost one hour.
I think the music of this compilation is rather good, all songs hold a general high quality and the songs fit together well like an ordinary album to be honest. I would also say that the hits are rather absent from the picture, Tongues and the opening track Death is Wasted on the Dead are the top tracks and they are very good but not those majestic hits that makes you stop in your stride. The other new track simply called METAL is not particularly interesting to be honest and the same goes for the album in its entirety, it is supposed to be a collection of the greatest hits but it feels like an average goth metal album. Well, maybe somewhat better than average but not a whole lot.
The feeling is that this compilation feels quite unnecessary, I don’t see the need as the band has only three albums under their belt and eleven years since the foundation which is not that significant and I think collections and compilations should be something special and reflect a significant occasion or something like that and I also think that a band should have at least five albums under their belt before releasing a best of compilation. So it feels a bit unnecessary this album which has a very very misleading title.
I think one thing that could have made this worthwhile would be if they re recorded all songs with Darth Vader on vocals, but that would probably never happen. So it is an album that doesn’t feel significant and neither does it feel motivated, it is a good gothic metal album but I would still rather recommend any of the band’s studio albums before this one and if you have all three albums there is really no need to get this compilation just for the two new songs as they do not motivate the price of the album.
So to summarise the ramblings of this review I would say that this album does feel largely unnecessary as it is not really a selection of the greatest songs of the band in regard to the few albums they have released so far, the new songs are good but not worthy of a purchase of this album I would say, unless of course you are a die-hard fan. The songs are good but there is not real standout hit song, the fifteen songs are all of high quality but nothing more than that. So for the good songs I award this album with four points as it is a good gothic metal album if you disregard the best of aspect.
HHHHHHH
Previous reviews:
Neal Morse - Testimony 2 Live in LA
Lars Botrup's Music for Keyboards - The Symphonic Dream
Justice -
Audio, Video, Disco
